World News

A Russian lawyer for Edward Snowden said on Tuesday the fugitive former US spy agency contractor who leaked details of the government`s mass surveillance programmes was working with American and German lawyers to return home.

The UN Security Council on Tuesday established a sanctions regime for South Sudan but stopped short of imposing worldwide travel bans and asset freezes on officials in the conflict-torn country or an arms embargo.

Thousands of mourners turned out Tuesday to pay a last homage to slain Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, gunned down near the Kremlin in the most stunning assassination of Vladimir Putin's rule.

The United States and its coalition partners staged 14 air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq since early Monday, according to the Combined Joint Task Force leading the operations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned US President Barack Obama on Tuesday against accepting a nuclear deal with Iran that would be a "countdown to a potential nuclear nightmare" by a country that "will always be an enemy of America".

Syrian rebels dealt a blow to a UN envoy`s proposal for a ceasefire in the northern city of Aleppo as his team headed there on Tuesday, saying the plan would only benefit the Syrian government at the expense of the opposition.

An Egyptian court on Tuesday deferred a long-awaited parliamentary election due in March indefinitely after another court declared the election law`s provision on voting districts as unconstitutional, judicial sources said.

Iran on Tuesday rejected as "unacceptable" US President Barack Obama`s demand that it freeze sensitive nuclear activities for at least 10 years, but said it would continue talks aimed at securing a deal, Iran`s semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany have agreed to hold a meeting of their deputy foreign ministers on Friday to discuss the possibility of sending peacekeeping forces to the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine.

Three Ukrainian servicemen were killed and nine wounded as pro-Russian rebels shelled government positions despite a ceasefire deal, the military said on Tuesday, announcing Kiev`s highest casualty toll in several days.

The London graduate believed to be Islamic State executioner "Jihadi John" once denounced the 9/11 attacks and the 2005 bombings in the British capital, according to an audio recording released Tuesday.

Leaders of France, Germany and Russia have agreed with Ukraine on the dispatch of OSCE monitors to 10 flashpoint sites on the country`s eastern frontline to shore up a shaky truce, Ukraine said Tuesday.

To catch a final glimpse of the Russian opposition leader and Putin critic Boris Nemtsov, thousands of relatives and supporters queued past his open coffin to pay their respects as his body was lying in state at Moscow's Sakharov centre.